Cheeseburger Gauntlet Day 3 – Bocado
Hey kids, so I’ve made it through day three of the cheeseburger gauntlet and my heart hasn’t exploded yet. I’m thankful for that, but I’m pretty sure my heart may go on strike due to the burgers plus the one hour workouts I’ve been going through just to maintain some level of health. But enough of that, we’ve got a burger to talk about.
Day Three’s burger is from Bocado. It’s one of those semi-swanky places over on the west side of Atlanta. All the tables appear to be 2 tops that are pushed together to make bigger tables. I got there at 7 since I didn’t make a reservation and the place was damn near empty, maybe a total of five people. But the place looks fantastic. Its clean, has a couple of fun looking patios and doesn’t have house music blaring at you to make you feel trendy. The hosts/servers reminded me of those people that sit at the sides of the net at tennis matches. While I waited for Stefan to join me, they brought me water and then they surveyed the room waiting for the slightest hint to pounce into action. One raised eyebrow and they were at your table like a service ninja.
The cool thing about going to Bocado on Tuesday is that they have a deal where you get the burger, fries and a beer all for $12. Once Stefan arrived we both ordered that. The only choices you are given with the Bocado burger is how you’d like it cooked and what side you’d like along with it. It’s a lot like Day 1 stop Holeman & Finch in that way. You order it and it’s prepared the way the chef thinks you should eat it.
The Bocado burger is a griddled double cheeseburger. It consists of two 3-4 ounce patties made of house ground brisket, beef short rib and organic ground beef. There are two slices of American cheese, a few house made bread and butter pickles and a little bit of mayo on a sesame seed bun. It did come with some sort of dressing/sauce on the side but due to the rules I have to abide by that was used for dipping the very tasty Belgian fries. Want take a look at it? Here ya go.
Bocado Burger
Every so often I like to do something crazy like name my food. I decided to name this cheeseburger Esther. Why? Because Esther is the name of a salty old woman that’s set in her ways and if you don’t like it too bad. But on the other hand Esther is a good woman if you can put up with her tendencies. This burger is just like Esther. It’s greater than the sum of its parts. If you get a bite of everything it all tastes fantastic together. How ever if you don’t you get a blast of Esther’s fury. How about a little cheeseburger CSI?
The good things about this burger:
- Perfect bun size – there’s no “extra bun”
- The bun tastes great – there’s a ton of burgers out there where the bun is merely a delivery system.
- The sweet bread and butter pickles are EXACTLY what this burger needs.
- The cheese melt factor is key. Notice in the picture how the cheese comes to the edge of each patty, but no further?
- The burger has a great “spill” ratio. I only lost one pickle while eating this burger.
- It’s also a very clean burger, no messy hands .
Now on to the two very big cons of this burger.
- This is by far the saltiest non-fast food burger I’ve ever had. Remember the pickles I mentioned in the pros section? They were the only thing that could temper the sodium assault. If I had gotten a bit of pickle in every bite I wouldn’t have noticed it. But that didn’t happen and the salty taste got overwhelming in some bites. We both ordered desserts just to have something sweet to counter point Esther’s saltiness.
- The cheese choice also lost points for me. Every other burger used cheddar and this burger used American. I don’t know if it was the brand or the thickness of the slice but it had a very velveeta taste and texture too it. It was dairy napalm that stuck to your tongue. I don’t know if a thinner slice or a different cheese is the answer.
- My last point of contention has more to do with the process than the burger itself. The burger may be the most democratic food outside of the taco when it comes to topping possibilities. To not be given a little container of ketchup or mustard borders on fascist. I understand the chef wants it to be eaten the way he’s prepared it, but the burger is such an individual thing that a container of condiments shouldn’t harm the concept he has in mind. It works for Holeman & Finch, why not here?
So on to the grading. I really really want to give this burger a C+, but Stefan reminded me of all the good bites Esther and I had together and thinks Esther deserves a B. So I’m going to split the difference and give it a B-. but that’s only after a call from a parent and a generous donation to the construction of the new library on campus.
